Opening Reception: Thursday September 5, 6:00 - 8:00 pm

On view: September 5 - November 30

Photographs by Nathaniel Burkins

"I’ve always loved to walk. Once, when I was about seventeen I was walking in Chicago, my hometown, and I saw a pigeon riding on the back of a truck. Back then, before the invention of cellphones, people used to say, "I wish I had my camera!" whenever they saw something incredible, wondrous, or funny. In the more than 40 years since that moment, I have always carried my camera with me, no matter what, whether in Chicago, New York City, Europe, or Athens, where I live now. My photographs are the product of thousands of miles of walking, observing the beauty of the human comedy against the backdrop of urban architecture, sprawl, and commerce.

With inspiration from painters Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, Edward Hopper, and Reginald Marsh, and from photographers such as Andre Kertesz, Elliott Erwitt, and Henri Cartier Bresson, my work has always been primarily candid. I think invisibility would be a cool superpower to have, seeing people as they truly are, without façades or artifice. I want my subjects to be comfortably oblivious, unaware of their contribution to the visual landscape, juxtaposed against the city, wandering onto a large scale stage of architectural elements or marketing schemes that I've noticed. They go on their way, hopefully, undisturbed by me. Through thousands and thousands of hours of practice, I have developed an eye for visual relationships and honed an ability to anticipate and recognize the instant when all the players and other elements of my composition are aligned. And then I press the button."

-Nathaniel Burkins